Apex Legends Review – Still Great In 2024

Launched in February 2019, Apex Legends is one of the most notable free-to-play Battle Royale shooters. Even among its genre, it is one of the most-played games on Steam.

As a fan of the genre, I decided to give it a try, and to my surprise, it was a lot better than I expected it to be in terms of gameplay. However, I had some qualms about a few issues here and there, but overall, Apex Legends was a pleasant experience, and I aim to share that experience with you in this review.

Story And Setting

Respawn Entertainment has done an exceptional job of providing a solid story and world-building. Additionally, the game is set in the world of the Titanfall series, another first-person shooter by Respawn Entertainment.

There is a wide variety of characters for the players to pick from. These characters are referred to as “Legends.” These Legends participate in a televised blood sport referred to as Apex Games, competing for fame, money, and glory in the Outlands.

Additionally, each Legend in the game has a unique backstory detailing how they became Legends. It’s not anything innovative if you ask me, but it still helps you pick up your Legend among the vast roster since you can’t try out their gameplay features before unlocking them.

These Legends participate in a televised blood sport referred to as Apex Games, competing for fame, money, and glory in the Outlands.

A fair amount of unique game modes keep you occupied, other than the traditional Duo and Trio. I also find the Mixtape playlist fun because the game modes and maps are in an ever-changing permanent rotation, so you don’t get bored.

Gameplay

Now, this is where it gets fun. Apex Legends stands out in the battle royale genre in many ways. First, the Legends roster is divided into five classes: Assault, Skirmisher, Recon, Controller, and Support.

When you first start playing the game, you can only pick one or two Legends from each class. You can unlock more Legends by purchasing Apex Coins or by using Legend Tokens that can be obtained by leveling up your account as you make progress.

These Legends include Lifeline, a fantastic beginner legend to Bloodhound which requires intense concentration of your surroundings to gain an advantage.

But the fact remains that you have to grind a lot to unlock Legends, which can get tedious at times, and you might not even like the character you’ve unlocked once you try them out, as there’s no demo feature in the game.

Other than that, having so many classes adds unique chemistry between the squads, as in competitive ranked, you can only pick three Legends in your squad, and you have to risk something to gain another. For example, if your squad already has a skirmisher and an assault character, you must go with a support or a controller.

Sometimes, if there’s a stranger in your party, they might take another assault character just because they want to take more kills or are in the mood to go Solo on everything. But that kind of toxicity isn’t rare in multiplayer games.

The gameplay is fun, in my opinion, but Apex Legends has so many things going on at once it can get tough to keep track of everything, especially if you’re a beginner.

Each Legend has a unique ability that can be used at the cost of a cooldown and an ultimate ability that charges over time or as you damage the opponents. Mastering your Legends’ skills and shooting skills are the key to success.

A Battle Royale Where Only The Legends Survive

What stood out the most to me was the vast majority of unique weapons. No weapon in the game felt useless or extremely overpowered, even after being paired with high-rarity attachments.

In this game, you must gather your resources, weapons, and ammo, just like in any other Battle Royale game. However, here, you have supply bins all over the map that might contain useful resources.

The quality of loot you find depends on your location, as each area has a different loot tier. You have more chances of finding rare loot if you’re in a high-tier loot area.

The gameplay is fun, in my opinion, but it has so many things going on at once it can get tough to keep track of everything, especially if you’re a beginner. The mini-map also does a miserable job of telling you where you are.

Furthermore, I didn’t like the dropship scenario at the beginning of each game, as the map barely tells you about the high-tier loot areas. It takes some time to get used to it, but you might miss the place you want to drop if you stop paying attention for even a millisecond.

Visuals And Performance

While the game’s poster and everything else might suggest a more cartoonish animation style, the maps are fairly gorgeous and high-quality. The environment looks much better than most Legends’ art style and design.

Looking at the roster of Legends, I couldn’t find much originality in most of them, as it looked like I had seen these characters before in some other game. However, the effects of their abilities are fairly well-animated.

Looking at the roster of Legends, I couldn’t find much originality in most of them, as it looked like I had seen these characters before in some other game.”

The game has pretty low minimum system requirements, and the performance itself was good considering I ran it on the best settings. It ran smoothly on my RTX 3080 with everything maxed out, as I didn’t experience any stutters or crashes during my playthroughs.

Just in case, I also tried running the game on my older GTX 1660 with high settings, and the game ran with over 60 FPS on it as well, aside from some fluctuations in visually intensive parts of the map.

Verdict

When I first launched the title, I expected a generic Battle Royale game where each character has Overwatch-style abilities. While it was true for the most part, the game still stands out independently due to its distinct gameplay mechanics, unique maps, and interesting game modes.

I think the idea that you can’t play Solo might not sit well with some players, but it still adds a layer of complexity to the game. And the vast roster of Legends with their distinct classes further complements that complexity.

In my opinion, the game might be lacking when dealing with beginners, as there is a lot to learn. The game teaches you the basics via the tutorial, but you’ll have to spend a lot of time to figure things out by yourself.

The game also requires a fair amount of grinding to unlock new Legends if you’re a free-to-play player. Pair that with the learning curve, and you’ll keep playing it for years.

Apex Legends has flaws, but it is still one decent Battle Royale with a solid player base that will likely retain it for years to come, as it has done since its launch. 

This concludes my review of Apex Legends. If you liked the review, you might also want to check out our other articles:

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